by Unknown
His hand moved from her belly to her hipbone. Active. Seeking.
She felt a dull, hard pressure at her lower spine. Oh yeah, he was awake all right, every inch of him.
Last night the sleeping bag had been a safe cocoon, now it tightened like a straitjacket as it fully dawned on her what they had done. Everything had changed between them and they could never go back to the way things were before.
Unexpected tears burned the backs of her eyelids, but she blinked them away. No crying. This new direction in their relationship might be scary, but it was growth. Growth was good.
Wasn’t it?
His palm surfed the curve of her body, sliding up to cup her breast.
Instantly, her nipples hardened. Her nerve endings pulsed, sending pleasure messages rushing up and down her body. His thumb brushed across one straining nipple and it tightened to the size of a raw green pea.
Her breathing quickened, each thready inhalation followed by shallow exhales. If she kept this up, she’d soon grow dizzy. He continued to gently knead her breast, sending insistent pinches of pleasure pushing up from deep inside her.
“Jericho,” she whispered on a sigh, and wondered if she was dreaming. She’d imagined this for so long, maybe it wasn’t even real.
His mouth branded the back of her neck, his hot tongue teasing and probing her as if she were some delicious find he’d unearthed. As he moved, the material of the sleeping bag made a slithery synthetic noise that made her think of parachutes opening. She’d gone skydiving once and loved it and this was even more thrilling than that.
Geronimo! Pull the cord. Here I come.
He strummed her skin, playing her like a guitar. Goose bumps sprang up everywhere his fingers touched, ignited brave little fires up and down her body. His palm planed over her belly, his calloused thumb rimming her navel.
Zoey exhaled a great gush of air and arched her spine against him.
He chuckled. “God, you are so responsive.”
“I want to see you face-to-face.”
His tongue was skimming her outer ear.
“You’re driving me crazy.” She groaned, wriggled. “Devil.”
“She-devil. You’ve been making me crazy for years. Giving back a little of that torture you’ve been giving out.”
“I never tortured you,” she protested.
“Maybe not intentionally, but you tortured me plenty.”
They made love again and rode one wave of pleasure into another, cementing the bond they’d formed, growing together, twining around each other. The moon moved across the sky and the night was one long, exquisite dream. She’d never been with a man who could please her in so many different ways. A man who took his time and knew how to please.
When they were too exhausted to make love anymore, but too wired to sleep, they talked and kissed and talked and kissed. She thought about telling him about Clarissa McCleary, but she didn’t want to ruin the special moment. Besides, she’d decided she did not want to dig any deeper into the past. Let it stay buried, right? As long as she left it alone, it was nothing but supposition, no one else had to know the secret.
“I really wished you hadn’t quit the dig,” he bemoaned.
“If I hadn’t quit, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
“But we would have ended up here eventually.”
“I couldn’t wait, Jericho. I’ve been waiting for you my whole life.”
“Me too,” he said, and kissed her forehead. “I just didn’t know how much.”
She smiled against his chest.
“What are you grinning about?”
“I think I know why I could never get serious about any of the guys I dated.”
“Why is that?” His voice rumbled in his chest. She liked the way it resonated against her ear.
“I thought it was because—per my family and their insistence that love will hit you like a bolt from the blue, that when you see your beloved, you’ll just know—I was waiting for that red-hot lightning to strike.”
“And it never did,” he said.
“No. It sneaked in steady and quiet.”
“That’s the way it started for me too.”
“It’s been growing from the moment I peeked over the fence and saw you digging up Junie Mae’s backyard.”
“We did become instant friends, but I can’t tell you how much I got teased because I was friends with a girl four years younger than I was.”
“Pfft on them. We know the truth.”
“What’s that?”
“That I’m a hell of a lot of fun to be around.”
“You can say that twice and not be wrong.” He laughed and traced a finger over her cheek.
“I’m a hell of a lot of fun to be around.”
“Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”
“Stop, you’re making me blush.”
“Your breasts are perfect—”
“Be honest, they’re on the small side.”
“Pert and firm and fit right in the palm of my hand.”
“That won’t last. A couple of kids and a few decades and they’ll be banging around my kneecaps.”
“I’m going to ignore that exaggeration because I know that no matter how many kids you have or how old you get I’m always going to see your breasts they way they are right now.”
She pulled back and looked him in the eyes. “When did you get so romantic?”
“The minute you crawled into the bed of this pickup truck with me.” His fingers swirled over her nipple.
“Stop, you’re making me dizzy. I can’t think.”
“Thinking is overrated. You’ve been trying to tell me that for years and I finally get what you mean.” He put his mouth to her nipple.
She let out a groan. “Wait, there was something I was trying to tell you but I forgot what it was.”
“Must not have been important,” he murmured.
“But it was.” She squirmed away from his exquisite mouth while she still had the fortitude to do so. “I was trying to tell you why and how I’ve changed.”
“Okay,” he said, propping himself up on his elbow and studying her. “I’m listening.”
“Where was I?”
“Lightning strikes, love at first sight, etc. …”
“Oh yes, the men I used to date. Do you know what I finally realized about them?”
“What’s that?”
“It wasn’t that there wasn’t chemistry or electricity with those guys, because there was.”
“I’m not sure I really want to hear this.” He covered his ears with his palms.
“All that lightning bolt stuff is nothing more than lust, after all. So yeah, I had some lusty times with some of those guys, but I never wanted to get involved with them and I never mistook a good time in bed for love. You know what I mean.”
“I’m pretty certain that I do not want to hear this. Do you want me telling you about the intimate details of my relationship with Mallory?”
“Shh.” She put a finger to her lips. “Listen a minute, this is really important.”
“No intimate details of bedtime with other men?”
“No.”
“All right, so what do you want to tell me?”
“I never wanted to be with any of those guys long-term because I always compared them to you. None of them could keep up with me mentally like you do—I’m not bragging that I’m smart. I’m just saying that my mind hops around a lot. But you get me. You understand who I am and you like me anyway. You don’t try to change me. You accept me, Jericho, and no man has ever done that for me. Maybe my father would have accepted me unconditionally if he hadn’t died. I like to believe he would have, but I never had complete acceptance from any man except you.” Tears misted her voice and she bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling.
“Ah hell, Zoe-Eyes.” He squeezed her tight. “You know I love you, don’t you?”
She nodded.
“I always have and I always will. You’ve been t
he one constant in my life. You’ve been there when my own parents weren’t.”
“Oh, Jericho.” She wanted so badly to tell him she loved him too but the words got clogged up in her throat. She did love him, with all her heart and soul, but she was so afraid to come right out and say the words. So scared that somehow she’d screw this up. She’d never been a long-term girl. Everyone knew it. She hadn’t even been able to keep a cat or stick with an archaeological dig.
And how could she truly say she loved him when she was keeping things from him? He trusted her so completely and yet she had this big secret she could not share with him because she’d dug up those artifacts again behind his back after she’d given him her solemn word that she would not. What would he say if he knew she’d excavated those mounds after she promised she would not? How would he react?
Yes, but holding on to this secret was putting a wall between them. How could they ever build a lasting, intimate bond if she couldn’t tell him everything?
Self-doubt swept over her in waves. She was overwhelmed with feeling and that’s all there was to it, and for a girl who’d spent her life keeping everything light and breezy, it was hard to dig deep and root out those strong emotions.
“You don’t have to say it,” he whispered. “I know you love me too. I do get you, Zoe-Eyes, and I’d never put expectations or limitations on you. You’re free as a bird. My love does not bind you, but it’s here for you. Forever. And no matter what happens, I will always, always have your back.” With his knuckle, he brushed the tear from her eyes.
Her breath caught on a hiccup.
“Shh, shh, everything is okay,” he soothed. “As far as you and I are concerned it’s always okay.”
Misery nibbled at her. That’s because he didn’t know what she’d done. How she’d broken her promise and was now basically lying to him.
Say it. Just tell him what he wants to hear.
But it felt like cheating to say those words without being completely honest with him first. She’d spent so long hiding the feelings from herself that she did not know how to say the words.
She squeezed his hand. He squeezed hers back. He was the most wonderful, patient man in the world.
Maybe she couldn’t speak the words, but she could show him. She kissed Jericho deeply, passionately, and used her body to tell him exactly what her mouth could not yet say.
I love you, Jericho Chance. I always have and I always will.
Chapter 19
Traits: Any element of human culture, material objects, or human practices.
THE sound of a vehicle engine woke them just after dawn.
Bleary-eyed, Zoey unzipped the sleeping bag, crawled to the tailgate, and peeked out over the back of the truck. The wire fence and metal gate the crew had put up at the bottom of Triangle Mount before they started the dig was less than two hundred yards away from where Jericho’s pickup was parked. A blue Lincoln Town Car pulled up beside the Cupid’s Rest van she’d driven over the previous evening. It was a car she had seen before in the faculty parking lot at Sul Ross.
“Oh, crap.” She ducked back down.
“What is it?” Jericho raised his head.
“Dr. Sinton.”
At least the rising sun would be in the director’s eyes, making it harder for him to see them scrambling around for their clothes.
Jericho bolted up. “Jeans, jeans, where are my jeans?”
“Here.” She passed him a pair of Levi’s. “No, wait, those are mine.” She grabbed them back, and keeping down on the bed of the pickup, humped like an inchworm to get them pulled up.
“What’s he doing up here at this hour?” Jericho finally found his pants underneath the sleeping bag.
“Probably came up here about my resignation letter.”
“If that’s the case, why come up here? If you resigned, he wouldn’t expect to find you at the dig site.” Jericho stuffed his feet into his boots.
The car door slammed. A scowling Dr. Sinton got out.
Her stomach soured. This was not good. Not good at all. She buttoned her shirt, fluffed her hair.
Jericho tossed the sleeping bag aside. “My shirt? Where’s my shirt?”
“You threw it over the side of the truck last night.”
He groaned and he fed his belt through the loops of his jeans.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I quit the dig, don’t panic.”
“Even so, this reflects badly on me.”
“Dr. Chance,” Dr. Sinton called out as he reached the gate. “Might I have a word?”
Jericho leaned over and gave her a big kiss on the cheek.
“Are you nuts? Kissing me in front of him!”
“If I’m going down, I’m going down. It’s not going to stop me from showing you how I feel about you,” he said, and then clenched his jaw, placed one hand on the side of the truck bed, and vaulted over the side. He landed with a cloud of dust, picked up his shirt and put it on, buttoning it as he strode toward Dr. Sinton.
Battling guilt, anxiety, and fear, Zoey climbed over the tailgate and followed him. She wasn’t going to let him face the director alone.
Jericho was just opening the gate for the director when Zoey rushed up to them. “Good morning, Director Sinton,” she said cheerfully as if she and Jericho hadn’t just spent the night having wild monkey sex in the back of a pickup at a field school dig site.
“Zoey.” Dr. Sinton nodded curtly, his face carved in stone.
Uh-oh.
For a moment, they all three stood there not saying a word. Dr. Sinton’s gaze played over them.
Jericho moved to put an arm around her shoulder. While it might not have been the wisest move in the book under the circumstances, it made Zoey’s heart flutter. He might be in hot water, but he was not ashamed of what they’d done and he wasn’t afraid to show it.
“Did you get my e-mail resigning from the dig?” Zoey asked, figuring she might as well take the bull by the horns.
“I did.”
“I quit the dig. So being with Jericho isn’t breaking any rules.”
The director gave her such a hard stare it was all she could do not to back up. That, and there was the fact that Jericho held her firmly at his side. “You were the one hiding in the closet at the lab,” he said flatly.
She couldn’t lie about that. Mutely, she nodded.
Dr. Sinton arched an eyebrow. He didn’t have to say what he was thinking. She’d still been on the dig that night, and while she and Jericho hadn’t actually consummated their relationship that day, it was a very fuzzy gray area.
“Director,” Jericho said, “I’m assuming you’re here about the problems we’ve been having at the dig. Vandalism, Avery’s injury, students quitting amid irrational fears of a curse and—”
“While those are matters of concern,” Dr. Sinton interrupted, “that’s not why I got out of bed at five in the morning to drive up here.”
Jericho straightened his spine, squared his shoulders. He looked like a soldier waiting to be court-martialed. “What is the reason, sir?”
“Marcus Winz-Smith called me at that lovely hour to tell me one of your team has been excavating outside of Triangle Mount in clear violation of the contract we signed. Not only is he shutting down the dig effective immediately, but he’s also suing Sul Ross.”
JERICHO’S HEART SANK. His career was thoroughly screwed and he knew it, but how had Winz-Smith learned Zoey had dug around on those mounds? That was a couple of weeks ago.
Dr. Sinton cocked his head. “Might I speak to you privately, Dr. Chance?”
“Of course, sir.”
“I’m going to put on some coffee.” Zoey pointed over her shoulder and started walking backward uphill toward the camp. “You want some?”
“No.” Dr. Sinton frowned. “I’m good.”
“Jericho?” Zoey’s voice was wavery.
“I’m fine. Go ahead, Zoey.”
The director waited until she was out of earshot and then he cleared his thr
oat. “Miss McCleary is a student.”
“Was,” Jericho corrected, knowing good and well he was grasping at straws, splitting hairs, and playing with semantics. “She dropped the course.”
“Because of you.” Dr. Sinton scratched his soul patch.
Guilt delivered a swift roundhouse kick to his gut. True enough. “She’s my best friend. I’ve known her since I was eight years old.”
“All the more reason to keep your dick in your pants.” Dr. Sinton glowered.
“I apologize. I should have told you that night in the lab that we were seeing each other. I am her instructor. I was in the wrong. I have no excuse for my behavior.”
“You were warned, Chance. You violated the conditions of your probationary employment.”
How had he gotten himself into this mess? He wasn’t that guy—the one who perpetually tripped himself up—except now it seemed that he was. How had this happened?
Zoey, that’s how.
Not that he was blaming her. He took responsibility for his own actions. It was just that his need to be with her had superseded everything. The attraction had taken him hostage, kidnapped every rational thought he possessed. Nothing was more important to him than she was, and that included his career.
Damn. He blinked, realizing for the first time just how much she really did mean to him.
“In case you weren’t aware of this, Miss McCleary is the one who excavated outside Triangle Mount. Someone saw her there yesterday and informed Winz-Smith about it.”
“Yesterday?” No, that couldn’t be right. Zoey had excavated the mystery mounds almost two weeks ago. “Are you certain Winz-Smith wasn’t misinformed?”
“No, I don’t believe so. The witness who saw her there was her fellow student, Catrina Bello. She saw Miss McCleary digging up and removing something from an area near the lake between Triangle Mount and Widow’s Peak. I had to ask myself why did Miss Bello feel more comfortable going to Winz-Smith with Miss McCleary’s transgressions instead of you?”
Jericho gulped.
“My arrival here this morning answered that question. Undoubtedly, Miss Bello knew you were having a relationship with Miss McCleary and realized you could not be impartial.”